Bush To Congress: Give Me Force

As President Bush lobbied Congress for war powers, it was Iraq's turn to make its case before the United Nations today - an attempt by Saddam Hussein's representative to discredit Mr. Bush's accusations. It was a day of angry words - charges and counter charges between the White House and Iraq, reports CBS News Chief White House correspondent John Roberts.

Defensive and defiant, Iraq's foreign minister Naji Sabri swore to the U.N. that his nation has no nuclear, chemical or biological weapons, and he accused the US of 'fabricating crises' with 'noisy propaganda.'

In a speech attributed to Hussein, Sabri said that his country is free of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.

"Our country is ready to receive any scientific experts, accompanied by politicians you choose to represent any one of your countries, to tell us which places and scientific installations they would wish to see," he said quoting Hussein.

"I hereby declare before you that Iraq is clear of all nuclear, chemical and biological weapons," Sabri said, further quoting Hussein.

Meanwhile, The U.N. chief weapons inspector says a small advance team could be in Iraq by mid-October.

Hans Blix of Sweden says the first teams will quickly head for "interesting sites." He and others involved say they'll insist that every area be open to inspectors.

Blix says he's assured the Iraqis that no inspectors are spies. That's been a point of contention in the past.

When asked if the Iraqis are fooling him, Blix says, "I don't think so, it's pretty hard to fool me."

The comments made by Sabri were the first attributed to the Iraqi leader since the surprise announcement from Baghdad earlier this week that it would accept the unconditional return of international weapons inspectors nearly four years after they left. The decision, which followed a tough speech on Iraq last week by Mr. Bush, has divided the major powers on the U.N. Security Council.

The White House dismissed Sabri's speech, calling it a disappointing failure in every respect.

"Let me guess. Uh, the United States is guilty -- the world doesn't understand -- we don't have any weapons of mass destruction," Mr. Bush said. "It's the same old song and dance that we've heard for eleven long years!"

To back up his threat to go-it-alone if necessary, the president fired off to Congress the draft of a tough new resolution declaring that the threats posed by Iraq "justify the use of force by the United States in order to defend itself." And, he added, "the goal of military action should be to topple Saddam."

He said the United States will take action on its own if the Security Council balks.

The president sent to Capitol Hill his proposed wording for a resolution that would give him such broad war-making authority. He told reporters in the Oval Office that the power to use force was all-important. "If you want to keep the peace, you've got to have the authorization to use force," he said.

Nine Democratic and Republican lawmakers emerged from a morning audience with the president predicting bipartisan support for the commander in chief. "I think we have no choice but to have the strongest support possible for the president's efforts here," said Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash.

Mr. Bush also served notice, in his bluntest language to date, that he expects a tough new resolution on Iraq from the United Nations, reports CBS News Correspondent Mark Knoller.

"The United Nations Security Council must work with the United States and Britain and other concerned parties to send a clear message that we expect Saddam to disarm and if the United Nations Security Council won't deal with the problem, the United States and some of its friends will."

Sources tell CBS News the private progress is greater than the public words are showing. But, if those efforts fail, the U.S. is quietly building support for a military strike - signing up Britain, Turkey, Italy, Spain, Poland, the Czech Republic, Australia and Qatar - which could serve as the command headquarters for US forces.

And a strike is beginning to take on an air of inevitability. Iraq is already placing conditions on its offer of "unconditional" weapons inspections. Hussein's multitude of palaces -- where the last group of U.N. inspectors believed he was hiding much of his weapons program – have been made off-limits.

But President Bush made it clear that Saddam Hussein is in no position to dictate terms. "There are no negotiations to be held with Iraq. They have nothing to negotiate," he said.

Sources close to the U.N. negotiations tell CBS News they expect the Security Council will eventually cave in to the President's wishes. The bottom line said one –" if it comes down to war between the United States and Iraq - which side would you want your country on?"

Sabri's speech at the U.N. heavily criticized the United States and Mr. Bush for trying to link Iraq in some way to the tragedy of Sept. 11.

It charged that "the American propaganda machine, along with official statements of lies, distortion and falsehood" was being used for "inciting the American public against Iraq, and pushing them to accept the U.S. administration's schemes of aggression as a fait accompli."

Iraq called on the United Nations to help protect its sovereignty in the face of possible U.S. military action.

And it charged that the United States was working in concert with Israel and was trying to control the Middle East oil supply.

"The U.S. administration wants to destroy Iraq in order to control the Middle East oil and consequently control the politics as well as the oil and economic policies of the whole world," the foreign minister said.

He also charged that the United States was fomenting problems with Iraq to prevent the Security Council from lifting economic sanctions and to keep the Middle East from becoming a nuclear-free zone as called for in council resolutions.

The United States, he said, does not want to embarrass Israel — which he referred to as "the Zionist entity" — or deprive it of the nuclear, chemical and biological weapons it possesses.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan met late Wednesday with Sabri, who said Iraq hoped the return of inspector would be a "first step toward a comprehensive solution to the crisis in the relations between the United Nations and Iraq and the lifting of the brutal regime of sanctions which has been killing our people for 12 years."

In a statement, Annan said that Sabri had pledged his government's full cooperation on finalizing arrangements for the swift return of inspectors.

U.N. sanctions were imposed and inspectors sent to Baghdad at the end of the 1991 Persian Gulf War to disarm Iraq and certify that the country's weapons of mass destruction have been destroyed.

But after seven difficult years, often peppered with crisis over access to sites and cooperation, inspectors left Iraq in December 1998 ahead of punishing U.S. and British air strikes.

At the time, the United Nations disbanded the first inspections team amid allegations that some members were spying for the United States. A new inspection team was established and Blix was appointed to head the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspections Commission.